DELAVAN — If Stephen Coker indeed wants to go back to prison for killing a puppy, he hasn’t admitted it yet.

The mother of a Delavan family that took the lifelong friend in after his last prison term said she believes Coker, 47, sought to provide a reason to return him to incarceration by allegedly shaking and stepping on one of the family’s 10-week-old puppies last month.

Coker badly injured another member of the same litter in his violent outburst at the home of Barbara and Henry Mibbs at 606 E. Fourth St., according to charges filed. Henry Mibbs saved that pet by scooping it into his hand and running without crutches on his broken leg, Barbara Mibbs said.

Coker pleaded not guilty in Tazewell County Circuit Court last Thursday to two counts of aggravated cruelty to a companion animal, a Class 4 felony punishable by up to three years in prison.

He had been acting unusual for some time prior to May 4, Barbara Mibbs said. Until then he had been a good houseguest over the months since his release from a 10-year prison term he received for residential arson and aggravated domestic battery in 2007, she said.

The family did not suspect the man Henry Mibbs had known since they were children when another puppy the family had was found dead and bloodied in their home several months ago. They thought a neighbor’s dog had gotten in and attacked that pet, Barbara Mibbs said. The day Coker allegedly went berserk, “he said he wanted to go home,” Barbara Mibbs said. “I thought at first, maybe he meant heaven. Now I think he wanted to go back to prison.”

Barbara Mibbs was away from the home and Henry Mibbs was sleeping on a couch when he awoke to sounds of yelping, according to a prosecutor’s court affidavit. He saw Coker “strangling and shaking” one of the family’s four miniature-pinscher-terrier-mix pups.

Henry Mibbs grabbed the puppy away, but Coker grabbed it back, threw it to the floor and began stepping on its head, the affidavit stated.

While Henry Mibbs rescued another of the puppies that lay injured on the floor, his son Joel rushed into the living room and took the remaining two. Coker followed Henry Mibbs out the door and demanded he hand over the injured puppy. Mibbs refused and hobbled across the street with it.

Police found him there with Coker, who was yelling at and moving aggressively toward his 21-year-old son, the affidavit stated.

Since Coker’s arrest, no one has posted the $2,500 cash bond needed for his release, pending prosecution. His trial was set for July 21, with a pretrial appearance July 14.